


they'll fulfil our dreams (we'll be free)

by aceofdiamonds



Series: is that such a stretch of the imagination? [14]
Category: Gossip Girl, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 03:48:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7558960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofdiamonds/pseuds/aceofdiamonds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the media's take on blair and harry, well-known people in their respective worlds</p><p>Harry talks about her in the rare interviews he gives, always clumsy at addressing her, never quite sure of the best way even after five years. He says things like <i>Blair, my wife, my wife called Blair, she does this thing where --</i>, and then the interviewer will pull him back to the way he tripped over her name, that smile that always follows, and the nation sighs, romance in their hearts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	they'll fulfil our dreams (we'll be free)

**Author's Note:**

> i feel like i haven't written anything for these two in ages. this was interesting to me, i hope someone else finds it interesting too? i knooow that the daily prophet probably aren't as vicious anymore after the war and corruption has hopefully lessened but let's pretend. also, as always, dan isn't gossip girl. title is from not with haste by mumford and sons

Straddling the two worlds as they do and being such high profiles people in their respective fields, Blair and Harry and their relationship have been under scrutiny from the beginning when they left their cocoon in Italy and returned to reality. They’ve both grown up under this sort of interest, of course, but it’s something different entirely when you’re tied to someone else. They’re in love and that’s all well and good but there’s some things you want to keep private from the prying eyes of readers, be that on Gossip Girl or across the front page of the Daily Prophet.

Given this, it's been interesting comparing the media from their two worlds and how they've aged with Blair and Harry's relationship. The Daily Prophet was spitting and angry at first, defensive over their hero and his taking up with a Muggle. They twisted this into a betrayal of the Wizarding community, most still in mourning of the war only five years gone. They painted Blair as an American hag, a particularly vicious cartoon springing up on page ten of her as a literal one, her talons gripping a cowering Harry’s shoulders, her lips bright red and her eyes balls of fire. For a while it was a case of pin-the-monster and the caricaturing of whatever of Blair’s features took their fancy, the fact that none of the reporters or ‘sources’ had ever met Blair an irrelevant and overlooked feature.

Blair had understood. To a point. Yes, Harry’s the saviour of their world, the Chosen One, the one who stopped both wars from tearing the country apart. He had been their golden boy: climbing ranks through the Auror office, part-time politician on the side as he did the rounds of the memorials, of the statues, of the fundraising, beautiful and feisty war hero Ginny Weasley by his side. He had been everything they had been hoping for for years and then he had disappeared for months and come back holding hands with a stranger, any other responsibilities momentarily dropped. So, okay, yes, Blair can see that they maybe felt a bit cheated, a bit disappointed, but that’s no way to treat her.

("What the hell is a Most Charming Smile?" she asked during those first few hard months, hand on hip and Witch Weekly held out. 

Harry had taken the magazine, ripped it in half and thrown it away, taking the scathing article about Blair hidden among its pages with it. Then he had tapped his mouth and grinned. "This one. You're dating prized goods, babe, gonna have to get used to it." 

When she had punched his arm, rolled her eyes, completely dismissive of his jokes, he had pulled her against him and kissed her forehead and said that he was sorry for everything. 

"I'm not crying over it," she had insisted. Being liked has never been something she's been concerned about but it stings when you're seen as interloper when all you want to do is hold hands and visit museums.)

In a proactive move to stop any comments, Harry was very strict about photographs at the wedding, at least on his side of the ocean, but one inevitably slips out, a very sophisticated shot taken just as they’ve said their vows and they’re leaning in for the binding kiss. It showcases Blair’s dress, the magnificent canopy of flowers behind them, and if you look closely, behind the instruments playing themselves, you can see their smiles. If this was America and they were big enough that paparazzi would gatecrash their wedding that photo would earn the taker millions. As it is, money counts for less in the wizard world and all The Daily Prophet wants is a quick bit of gossip about their hero. They blow up the picture and put it on their front page, headlines declaring the ceremony gorgeous and fabricated sources included within of the strange customs Muggles have at weddings, citing the throwing of the bouquet. W _hat a beautiful bride Blair Waldorf made and doesn't it she sound like she's really fit in with the family? How wonderful._

They've softened off on her since, declaring their marriage and subsequent pregnancy as just the thing they need; when their war hero is happy, the country swells. Peacetime isn’t as superficial and easy as that and Blair doesn't want the weight of Wizarding Britain's happiness on her shoulders but it's better than the alternative and so she takes it.  
  
Harry talks about her in the rare interviews he gives, always clumsy at addressing her, never quite sure of the best way even after five years. He says things like _Blair, my wife, my wife called Blair, she does this thing where_ , and then the interviewer will pull him back to the way he tripped over her name, that smile that always follows, and the nation sighs, romance in their hearts.

Gossip Girl, on the other hand, is, well, similar actually. At first there's a lot of digs at Blair's past, hopes that Harry will read their blasts and run for the hills with warnings like  _Gossip Girl here. Looks like B's going for lucky wedding number three with Harry. I've heard it's to be a quiet affair with not much chance for drama but when has that ever worked out for Blair? We'll save our comments for the divorce xoxo_ but as time goes on and they realise Blair and Harry are here to stay they cool off, almost ignoring them entirely, which is _good luck_ and _congratulations_ from them. 

(A tribute: _Gossip Girl here. It's been a quiet few years for the Upper East Side with everyone grown up and boring -- where's the drama? I've got a job to do. There must be a blue moon tonight because I'm not wrong often but here's to you, Queen B, happy three years xoxo_ )

When her line expands to Europe Blair does an interview with The Spectator about the buzz surrounding her across the continent. Of course, towards the end, the interviewer leans in like this is a secret chat and not about to spread via a newspaper through the country and says, _you have a personal connection to europe, don’t you?_ Which Blair thinks is an odd way to say _your husband’s english, tell us about him_  but she’s making good impressions here, she wants to sell, and anyway, as private as she likes to be about these things, she likes talking about Harry, and so she nods and spills secrets about the way she and Harry would split their time between Manhattan and London and the struggles of a long-term relationship. She slips in a couple of stories about their families and Teddy’s wish for a cat, so relatable, you see, but when it’s published the inches are full of Blair’s coy smile and the way she fiddles with her wedding ring whenever Harry’s name is mentioned, her cheeks rosy. The final line declares _Blair’s happiness has been something readers have long-awaited and, if you ask us, Gossip Girl’s input notwithstanding, we think she’s finally got it._ It’s a little hard to swallow, in a best intentions kind of way -- a Blair from the past would’ve called up Nate and gotten the interviewer fired but she reads the line again, contemplates her long sought happiness, and decides who cares.

As kind as the media may have become, someone steals a photo of the baby on their first walk a week after they’re born which results in a photographer shouting apologies and throwing his camera at Harry as he attempts to run on jelly-legs. Gossip Girl makes a sly dig about Blair’s baby weight that hasn’t been shed immediately after giving birth. There’s a couple of remarks on their choice of godparents, from both sides of the ocean, but it’s the media, you know? They haven’t really cared what they said in years.

“Blair and the baby are doing fine,” Harry says during a post-match press conference a month after the photo incident. He runs a hand through his hair, sweaty and tired, and at least three reports ignore the results of the match altogether to cover the beam of new parent Harry Potter and send their well wishes for his wife Blair. 


End file.
